A COMPARISON. William Cowper Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T14895 K027775.000 Cowper, William, 1731-1800. Poems: by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq. London printed for J. Johnson 1782 p. 304. [4],367,[1]p. ; 8⁰.

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A COMPARISON . THE lapse of time and rivers is the same , Both speed their journey with a restless stream , The silent pace with which they steal away , No wealth can bribe , no pray'rs persuade to stay , Alike irrevocable both when past , And a wide ocean swallows both at last . Though each resemble each in ev'ry part , A difference strikes at length the musing heart ; Streams never flow in vain ; where streams abound , How laughs the land with various plenty crown'd ! But time that should enrich the nobler mind , Neglected , leaves a dreary waste behind .